Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

If this has been answered before please just tell where to look.

I have a spare 120gb HDD that I want to boot from. Its in a case that connects via USB. It can be seen in XP when booting from the internal HDD so I know its working.

When I plug it in via USB prior to booting, it does not show up on the list of bootable devices when I press f12.

I have checked the bios settings and I think they are correct.

All that gets listed is my internal HDD and the CD drive even if there is no cd in it.

Why doesn't my USB connected HDD even show in the list of devices when I pres F12?

When I press F12, it doesn't even appear to check to see if there is a device connected to the USB port.

Is there something else I should do in Bios?

Thanks

FIXED.

But I dont know why.

After posting i googled a few searches about booting from USB HDD. That made me recheck my bios settings.

When I checked the start order again, my USB HDD had changed from -USBhdd with no entry, to +USB. And then when I entered retrun to expand the +, there it was. It is now listing my Seagate 120 HDD.

I have no idea why it refused to see it before.

For good measure as per instructions on various sites, I moved it to the top of the list.

Saved the settings using F10 again

Rebooted and pressed F12.

This time, there it is. My Seagate USB connected HDD.

And I dont even have an operating system installed on it yet. Only some backup data.

So when i chose to boot from it, naturally it tried and then just went to my internal HDD and booted into xp normally.

I have been trying for days, and I have no idea why it now works.

Maybe I should update my bios but its already 2007 so I cant see that as the cause for the odd behaviour.

Any ideas?

NOT FIXED AFTER ALL.

Now you see it now you dont.

Sometimes it appears in the boot list and sometimes it doesn't.

I have tested the connectoin by booting into windows and connecting the USB cable that is connected to the HDD and windows sees it everytime.


But, it most often does not see it at boot up, when I press f12 to show the boot list. Then when I reboot and go into bios, its not there.

So I shut down and reboot several times, and I have found that I have to keep disconnecting and reconnecting the USB HDD several times before the BIOS will recognise that there is a
USB HDD attached.

Anybody got any ideas?

Does anybody else have this trouble with booting from USB devices, HDD in particular?

I've noticed that the USB bus does not always gets powered on boot (keyboard not always available, etc). It seems to happen more often from cold boot power-up, and less often from warm reboot, but I have not gone any further.